23B 
C2J 


History  of  Jersey 
Farm  Dairy,  San  Bruno, 
California,  R.  G. 
Sneath,  Proprietor. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


ROBERT  ERNEST  COWAN 


HISTORY 


JERSEY  FARM  DAIRY, 


SAN  BRUNO.  CAL. 


R,  G,  SNEATH,  PROPRIETOR, 


DEPOT: 

837  HOWARD  STREET,  350  TEHAMA  ST. 


SAN    FRANCISCO. 


}  -GEORGE  SPAULDING  &  CO..  PRINTERS.         JW 

foSS,  414  Clay  Street.  San  Francisco. 


IP! 


\*r 

Jersey   Farm  Dairy, 

SAN   BRUNO,   GAL. 


This   dairy  was   established  in    1875,  by  R.  G. 
Sneath,  a  merchant,  farmer   and   banker,  whose 
long  experience  in  the  city  and  country  led  him  to 
believe  that  the  introduction  of  a  pure,  wholesome 
and  rich  country  milk  would  be  appreciated  by  the 
people  of   San   Francisco,  and   that  a  large   and 
profitable  business  might  be  built  up  in  the  course 
of  time  that  would  be  a  credit  to  himself,  a  great 
so  humanity  to  the  people,  and  an  honor  to  the  State. 
=2  He  purchased  about  2,700  acres  of  fine  grass  land, 
^  lying  about  four  miles  south  of  the  city  limits,  and 
2t  reaching  nearly  from  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  to 
«»  the  ocean.     He  has  seeded  about  1,400  acres  into 
^  rye,  and  cock's-foot   grasses,  that   are  perennial, 
-^  which  now  supports   about  1,000   head  of   stock; 
^  and  when  the  whole  place  is  cultivated,  which  he 
expects  to  do  immediately,  it  will  keep  in  fine  con- 
dition about  2,000  head. 

About  600  cows  are  in  milk  the  year  through, 
and  the  remainder  dry  in  pasture.  Pure  Jersey 
bulls  are  alone  in  use,  and  the  place  is  named 
after  the  large  herd  of  Jerseys,  which  is  its  chief 
feature.  Over  1,000  calves  are  dropped  annually, 
and  those  from  the  best  cows  alone  are  raised. 
The  bull  calves  not  pure  and  heifer  calves  from 

,'570720 


poor  milkers  go  to  the  butcher  The  calves  thus 
raised  make  fine  milkers,  gentle,  and  good  beef 
cattle,  when  they  come  from  crosses  with  graded 
short- horns  or  good  American  cows;  and  when 
raised,  they  take  the  place  of  inferior  cows  that  are 
set  apart  for  beef,  and  thus  a  continual  selection 
and  perfection  raises  the  standard  of  excellence  in 
the  remaining  cattle  that  must  in  time  secure  to 
Jersey  Farm  a  noted  breed  of  stock  of  its  own  of 
Jersey  blood.  A  great  many  young  half-breed 
Jersey  heifer  calves  are  now  being  sold  to  dairy- 
men and  farmers  who  wish  to  improve  their  stock, 
at  $5  each  when  dropped. 

This  dairy  is  now  perhaps  the  largest  one  of 
its  kind  in  the  United  States,  or  in  the  world,  and 
when  its  lands  are  all  cultivated  and  fully  stocked 
with  such  a  production  of  improved  animals  as  are 
now  being  raised,  the  proprietor  may  well  feel  that 
he  is  engaged  in  an  enterprise  that  has  no  equal 
in  its  magnitude  or  meritorious  claims. 

Springs  of  pure  water  in  every  field  supply  large 
troughs,  to  which  the  stock  have  easy  access,  and 
large  reservoirs  have  been  constructed  at  an  eleva- 
tion of  some  300  feet  to  irrigate  hundreds  of  acres 
of  land,  furnish  motive  power  to  grind  the  grain, 
cut  the  hay,  wash  the  cans,  and  sluice  the  barns, 
besides  raising  all  the  fish  needed  as  food  for  the 
tables. 

Many  thousand  pine,  cypress  and  gum  trees  are 
now  surrounding  the  improvements,  lakes,  ponds, 
and  along  the  roadways,  and  thousands  are  being 


3 


planted  every  year  for  ornament  and  future  use. 
Fruit  and  vegetables  for  the  tables  are  raised  in 
large  quantities,  and  the  great  variety  of  flowers 
about  the  lawns  gives  to  the  place  an  air  of  cheer- 
fulness and  beauty  seldom  seen,  if  ever,  in  connec- 
tion with  such  a  business.  Chickens  find  this  a 
provident  home  and  thrive  in  great  numbers  with 
little  attention. 

New  reservoirs  are  constructed  every  year  to  al- 
low the  fish  to  increase  and  multiply,  and  in  a  few 
years  this  business  alone  will  be  of  great  magni- 
tude, and  no  doubt  profitable,  as  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction is  small.  Cooking  boilers  of  300  bushels 
capacity  are  arranged  so  that  one  man  can  provide 
food  thoroughly  cooked  by  steam  for  600  cows. 

The  cans  and  milk  vessels  are  scrubbed  with  the 
best  revolving  Russia  bristle  brushes  driven  by 
water  power,  and  cleansed  much  better  and  cheap- 
er than  by  hand.  The  soap  suds,  together  with 
the  liquid  manure  from  the  barns  and  all  waste 
water,  is  conducted  to  a  pit,  and  from  thence,  after 
dilution,  to  the  pastures. 

A  blacksmith  and  wagon  shop,  with  a  plumber 
and  tinker,  and  help  of  a  carpenter  and  painter, 
make  wagons  and  nearly  all  of  the  implements 
needed,  shoe  the  horses  and  make  repairs.  The 
miller  is  constantly  cleaning  and  grinding  grain 
and  putting  it  in  shape  for  use  in  the  dairy  barns. 
He  uses  wind  and  water'  power  combined,  and 
grinds  his  ton  an  hour  under  a  fair  breeze.  The 
flavor  and  purity  of  the  milk  requires  that  all  for- 


eign  matter  should  be  taken  from  the  grain  before 
it  is  ground.  Smut,  rust,  mustard  and  raddish 
seed,  nails,  screws,  glass,  gravel  or  dirt,  or  floor 
sweepings  which  are  found  in  grain  do  not  make 
good  milk. 

Each  barn  has  a  foreman  and  a  man  for  every 
string  of  thirty  cows.  Three  hours  are  allowed  for 
milking,  or  six  minutes  to  the  cow,  and  these  men 
do  nothing  but  milk,  feed  their  cows,  clean  the 
barns  after  each  milking,  and  wash  their  utensils. 
Two  men  are  required  with  dump-carts  to  clean  up 
around  the  barns  and  stables  daily,  and  haul  to 
the  dump.  From  two  to  three  thousand  two-horse 
wagon  loads  of  compost  is  made  yearly  and  ap- 
plied to  the  pastures  in  the  early  winter.  Twelve 
and  a  half  tons  of  green  rye  grass  per  acre  is  not 
an  uncommon  yield  for  the  first  crop,  and  three 
tons  of  hay  is  about  the  average  yield  of  good  land; 
while  a  fine  green  pasturage  is  kept  up  on  dry  land 
by  irrigation  throughout  the  dry  season,  and  on 
moist  land  without  irrigation. 

The  milk  is  cooled  thoroughly  directly  after  be- 
ing drawn,  put  in  three-gallon  cans,  and  thence  to 
a  large  thoroughbraced  wagon  in  double  tiers,  con- 
taining 200  cans,  weighing  about  7,000  pounds. 
Six  large  mules  are  then  attached,  and  the  city  is 
reached  in  two  hours  and  forty  minutes.  Twenty- 
four  mules  are  used  in  this  service,  and  they  make 
the  time  with  the  regularity  of  the  cars.  The  large 
wagon  is  met  on  its  arrival  at  the  city  depot  by 
six  drivers  with  their  small  wagons,  and  the  load 


mostly  transferred  in  a  few  moments  to  the  latter. 
The  remainder  is  placed  in  large  troughs  of  cool 
water  in  the  depot,  and  left  for  sale  there.  A  por- 
tion is  put  in  pans  to  raise  cream,  for  which  there 
is  a  large  demand.  The  slummed  milk  is  then 
sold  at  less  than  half  the  price  of  straight  milk,  if 
possible,  and  if  not  sold  it  is  left  setting  till  soured, 
when  the  balance  of  the  cream  raised  is  made  into 
butter.  Butter  is  churned  twice  or  oftener  daily, 
and,  the  buttermilk  being  of  exquisite  quality, 
finds  a  ready  sale  at  the  depot.  The  sour  skimmed 
milk  sometimes  sells  also,  but  if  not,  it  is  taken 
back  for  the  hogs  on  the  farm.  About  one  hun- 
dred employes  and  about  one  hundred  horses  and 
mules  are  actively  engaged  in  the  business,  which, 
with  the  cows,  consume  about  1,500  tons  of  ground 
feed,  1,500  tons  of  hay,  about  100  rejected  cows 
for  beef,  and  about  100  hogs  annually.  Hundreds 
of  thousands  of  trout,  carp  and  catfish  are  now 
being  raised  for  consumption  on  the  farm  and  in 
the  city. 

STATISTICS. 

A  tabulated  form  is  used  at  each  dairy  barn,  and 
all  the  details  of  barn  and  farm  booked  daily  and 
footed  monthly,  such  as:  Number  of  fresh  cows 
put  in  and  dry  cows  put  out  daily;  total  number 
of  cows  milked;  the  quantity  of  milk  given, 
morning  and  evening;  the  average  quantity  given 
by  each,  and  the  percentage  of  cream  the  milk 


furnishes;  also,  the  quantity  and  quality  of  each 
kind  of  grain  or  ground  feed  given;  the  quantity 
and  quality  of  the  hay;  the  condition  of  the  grass 
pasture;  the  state  of  the  weather;  the  quantity  of 
salt  used — and  everything  is  noted  for  each  day 
that  is  presumed  to  have  any  effect  on  the  quantity 
or  quality  of  the  milk  The  food  is  changed  fre- 
quently, and  experiments  are  being  made  contin- 
ually; and  the  proprietor  can  now,  by  looking  over 
his  tables,  ascertain  the  cause  of  any  shrinkage  in 
quantity  or  quality  of  his  milk.  Bad  and  sudden 
changes  of  weather  will  cause  the  greatest  tempo- 
rary shrinkage  in  quantity;  and  each  kind  of  food 
has  its  effect,  either  for  good  or  bad,  and  freezing 
weather  dries  up  the  cows  rapidly. 

The  proprietor  feels  that  he  is  engaged  in  a 
great  philanthropic  work — for  there  can  be  no 
question  of  the  fact  that  thousands  of  lives,  par- 
ticularly of  children,  have  been  lost  in  this  city 
through  the  use  of  bad  milk.  And  to  furnish  an 
absolutely  perfect  milk  must  be  considered  in  the 
light  of  a  great  public  benefaction. 

The  death  rate  since  the  introduction  of  this 
milk  five  years  ago,  according  to  the  Health  Office 
reports,  has  steadily  decreased — from  18.01  per 
1,000  in  1875-76  to  14.75  in  1878-79— notwith- 
standing the  opening  in  the  cross  streets  to  the 
sewers  have  furnished  a  serious  obstacle  to  any 
reformation  in  matters  of  health. 

Hundreds  of  physicians  are  now  recommending 
the  use  of  Jersey  Farm  milk  and  cream,  not  only 


for  family  use,  but  to  the  sick  of  all  ages,  and  for 
nearly  all  complaints;  and  it  has  become  a  noted 
saying  that  if  Jersey  Farm  milk  and  cream  will 
not  help  them,  nothing  will. 

The  city  depot,  837  Howard  street,  is  now  a 
popular  resort  for  hundreds  of  ailing  people  daily. 
Some  want  a  drink  of  cream,  others  fresh  milk; 
while  fresh  buttermilk,  just  from  the  churn,  seems 
to  be  the  panacea  for  most  of  the  drinking  visitors. 
The  multitude  is  increasing  from  day  to  day,  and 
it  would  warm  the  heart  of  any  man  that  has  a 
soul,  to  hear  the  old  dyspeptics,  say  that  they  have 
had  no  rest  or  peace  with  their  stomachs  until  they 
tried  the  Jersey  Farm  milk;  and  then  to  observe 
their  growing  health  and  re-animated  spirits,  while 
showering  blessings  upon  the  dairy — goes  far  to 
enthuse  the  proprietor  into  a  more  vigorous  prose- 
cution of  his  work. 

Do  not  suppose  that  this  dairy  is  intended  as  a 
charitable  institution,  nor  an  undertaking  to  exalt 
the  Christian  virtues  of  the  proprietor,  as  in  con- 
trast with  designing  neighbors.  The  prime  object 
is  to  make  mon<  y;  and  his  theory  is  that  more 
money  can  be  made  out  of  the  business  in  the  long 
run  by  the  introduction  of  a  rich  and  perfect  milk 
than  by  the  most  scientific  adulteration. 

At  the  commencement  he  found  it  very  difficult 
to  find  believers  in  the  announcement  that  he 
would  furnish  milk  that  was  absolutely  pure.  So 
many  had  said  fhe  same  thing  a  thousand  times 
before,  and  failed  to  carry  out  their  promises,  that 


8 


nearly  all  were  unbelievers.  A  few  personal 
friends,  that  knew  his  character  for  veracity  as  a 
merchant  and  business  man,  made  bold  to  try  his 
milk,  and  they  soon  found  out  its  value.  Their 
immediate  friends  were  soon  notified  of  its  discov- 
ery, and  thus  its  reputation  grew,  so  that  the  de- 
mand has  steadily  increased  from  a  few  gallons  to 
thousands  daily — in  fact,  more  rapidly  at  times 
than  the  supply  could  be  increased;  and  now  but  a 
limited  number  of  orders  could  be  taken  without 
increasing  the  number  of  cows  immediately. 

The  competition  in  the  milk  business  is  greater, 
perhaps,  than  in  any  other,  and  the  profit  is  gen- 
erally in  the  amount  of  water  that  can  be  used — 
the  scientific  part  being  in  their  ability  to  put  in  a 
large  percentage  and  not  be  discovered,  and  also 
to  sell  milk  made  of  city  slops  for  country  milk. 
Probably  three-fourths  of  all  the  milk  consumed  is 
from  distillery  and  brewery  slops;  this  is  called 
defective  milk  by  scientific  men,  for  the  reason 
that  the  sugar  in  the  grain  has  been  changed  to 
alcohol,  and  the  refuse  slops  are  lacking  in  the 
essential  element  necessary  to  form  sugar  in  the 
milk.  Consequently,  such  milk,  being  defective, 
\vill  not  support  life.  Besides,  these  slops  are  de- 
composed to  such  an  extent  as  to  be  full  of  animal 
life,  as  seen  under  the  microscope,  and  cannot,  of 
course,  make  a  wholesome  milk. 

Public  institutions  in  the  East  and  abroad,  such 
as  hospitals  and  asylums,  are  extremely  careful  in 
securing  the  very  best  of  country  milk,  but  so  far 


in  the  history  of  San  Francisco  there  has  been  no 
attention  paid  to  the  quality  of  the  milk  used  in 
her  hospitals,  except  during  the  management  of 
Supervisor  F.  A.  GHbbs,  as  Chairman  of  the  Hos- 
pital Committee  of  the  Board  of  Supervisors. 

There  are  two  Milkmen's  Unions  in  this  city,  to 
which  nearly  all  dealers  belong,  organized  for  self 
protection.  One  claims  that  brewery  slops  make 
good  milk,  yet  do  not  like  to  admit  that  they  use 
them,  and  decry  the  other  Union  because  they  are 
supposed  to  use  distillery  slops.  Both  Unions  are 
a  unit,  however,  in  trying  to  prevent  countrymen 
from  selling  their  milk  in  the  city  to  consumers, 
and  which  is  the  protection  sought,  as  appears  by 
a  rule  in  their  Constitution.  They  also  have  their 
headquarters,  at  which  milk  may  be  left  for  sale 
by  those  that  have  a  surplus,  and  taken  by  those 
that  are  short — an  exchange,  as  it  were,  to  equalize 
the  trade.  Consumers  that  understand  the  in- 
surance business  can  readily  see  that  by  this 
process  they  will  seldom  have  the  same  milk  twice, 
and  a  general  average  is  much  safer  than  to  have 
but  one  kind  of  milk,  in  case  it  should  be  bad. 

Swill  milk  can  be  made  for  about  one-half  the 
cost  of  pure  country  milk  from  grass,  grain  and 
hay,  and  it  will  be  made  and  sold  and  good  coun- 
try milk  driven  out  of  market  so  long  as  citizens 
continue  to  use  the  inferior  article.  These  Unions 
have  done  all  they*  could  to  injure  and  misrepre- 
sent the  Jersey  Farm  milk.  Perhaps  a  thousand 
persons  have  been  engaged  daily  for  the  lust  live 
1* 


10 


years  in  trying  to  make  people  believe  that  their 
milk  was  Simon  pure,  and  the  Jersey  Farm  a  hum- 
bug, but  "truth  is  mighty  and  will  prevail,"  and 
all  this  clamor  has  resulted  in  advertising  the  bus- 
iness and  making  Jersey  Farm  more  popular.  It 
has  been  slow,  tedious  and  unprofitable  arriving  at 
the  present  position,  notwithstanding  the  very 
large  business  done  by  this  dairy.  The  heavy  ex- 
penses are  now  nearly  over.  A  complete  and  eco- 
nomical system  has  been  gradually  adopted  that 
will  insure  a  reasonable  profit  in  the  business  in 
ordinary  seasons,  and  yet  allow  the  proprietor  to 
continue  to  carry  out  his  cherished  idea  of  making 
a  purer  and  richer  milk  than  was  ever  offered  be- 
fore, and  yet  make  a  living  profit  at  the  current 
rates  for  milk.  The  Jersey  Farm  standard  is  12i 
per  cent. ,  and  the  average  of  cream  in  the  milk 
supplied  the  city  of  Boston  the  past  year  as  re- 
ported by  Henry  Faxon,  Milk  Inspector  for  twenty 
years,  was  from  8  to  10  per  cent.,  while  the  aver- 
age price  of  milk  was  from  10  to  15  per  cent,  higher 
in  Boston  than  in  San  Francisco,  and  he  says  in 
his  last  annual  report  that  if  the  citizens  of  Boston 
could  be  supplied  direct  from  the  fanner  without 
the  intervention  of  middle-men  (and  their  water) 
with  pure  rich  milk,  that  the  consumption  would 
be  far  greater. 

This  is  just  what  Jersey  Farm  is  doing.  It  car- 
ries its  milk  to  the  consumer's  door,  all  over  the 
city,  in  quantities  to  suit,  fresh  and  without  chance 
of  adulteration,  directly  from  the  farm,  the  price 


11 


being  uniform  to  all  persons  for  a  like  quantity, 
and  entirely  uniform  in  quality.  Families  find  al- 
most universally  that  on  changing  to  Jersey  Farm 
milk  that  they  require  more  of  it  than  their  usual 
quantity,  which  is  simply  because  the  members  of 
the  family  soon  become  fond  of  it  and  drink  more. 
Milk  at  present  prices,  compared  with  the  cost  of 
other  kinds  of  food,  is  the  most  economical  to  use 
of  any,  and  yet  many  persons  act  upon  the  theory 
that  milk  is  an  expensive  luxury. 

It  has  been  found  that  grass,  grain  and  clean, 
well  cured  grain  hay,  or  that  from  cultivated 
grasses,  makes  the  sweetest,  heaviest  and  most 
perfect  milk.  Beets  and  carrots 'make  thin  milk, 
potatoes  and  slops  ruin  its  flavor  and  make  thin 
milk;  grass  or  hay  and  bran  alone  make  thin  milk 
also,  although  wholesome.  The  natural  grasses 
of  the  country  —  that  are  mostly  weeds  —  do  not 
make  good  milk,  butter  or  cheese.  Grain  is  the 
main  dependence,  with  good  grass  and  hay,  in 
making  a  rich  milk;  and  even  when  the  cows  on 
Jersey  Farm  are  up  to  their  knees  in  the  very  best 
cultivated  grasses,  they  get  not  less  than  five 
pounds  of  ground  feed  daily,  and  from  that  to  fif- 
teen pounds  as  the  dry  season  progresses.  The 
latter  amount,  with  fifteen  pounds  of  hay  to  each 
animal  daily,  is  called  heavy  feeding  and  necessary 
to  produce  a  full  flow  of  milk  in  the  dry  season. 
It  requires  the  keeping  of  about  two  cows  to  insure 
one  in  milk  the  year  through.  The  cows  in  the 
barn  will  not  average  over  two  gallons  of  milk 


12 


daily  for  the  year.  Some  cows  will  give  from  five 
to  six  gallons,  while  the  strippers  are  only  giving 
one  gallon  each  for  the  day.  In  the  grass  season 
the  average  is  2£  gallons  per  cow  daily,  and  in  the 
drv  season  from  If  to  2  gallons.  It  can  thus  be 
seen  that  if  food  costs  one  cent  per  pound,  which 
is  frequently  the  case,  and  thirty  pounds  fed,  and 
only  two  gallons  obtained  by  keeping  two  cows — 
one  supposed  to  be  on  dry  pasture — that  the  milk 
would  cost  15  cents  per  gallon  simply  for  the  feed 
of  one  cow.  The  other  expenses  are  difficult  to 
estimate,  but  must  nearly  double  the  cost  of  feed 
alone.  The  item  of  the  milkers'  wages  being  about 
three  cents  per  gallon,  and  the  wastage  and  cost 
of  delivery,  the  wages  of  general  employes,  the  use 
of  the  farm,  the  loss  of  animals,  loss  in  collections, 
wear  and  tear  of  wagons,  harness  and  implements 
of  all  kinds,  with  many  accidents,  runs  up  the  cost 
fearfully,  and  with  a  high'  cost  for  feed,  the  milk- 
man is  almost  sure  to  be  bankrupted,  unless  he 
can  escape  by  water. 

The  proprietor  frequently  keeps  a  year's  supply 
of  feed  in  advance  that  he  may  be  insured  against 
high  prices  and  charge  a  uniform  price  for  milk, 
and  it  is  only  because  of  an  abundant  capital,  much 
forethought,  with  a  vigorous  and  economical  pros- 
ecution of  the  business,  a  large  experience  and 
personal  acquaintance,  that  he  has  been  enabled 
to  prove  that  his  theory  and  plans  can  be  made 
financially  successful.  Hundreds  of  farmers  in 
the  vicinity  of  San  Francisco  have  tried  the  same 


thing  but  have  been  unsuccessful,  and  they  will 
continue  to  be  so,  as  long  as  slop  milk  is  permitted 
to  be  sold,  and  consumers  are  careless  as  to  what 
they  use. 

Milk  is  more  plentiful  during  the  spring  months 
than  at  any  other  season,  and  milkmen  from  the 
country  would  then  make  money,  as  grass  is  the 
cheapest  food  used  by  them,  but  unfortunately  just 
at  that  time  the  city  becomes  depopulated  to  a 
great  extent  by  the  exodus  to  the  country  for 
health  and  pleasure;  while  the  great  demand  for 
milk  comes  in  the  fall  and  winter,  at  a  time  when 
it  is  most  difficult  and  expensive  to  make  milk. 

Therefore  the  proprietor  during  the  flush  season 
raises  most  of  his  calves,  and  makes  butter  from 
any  surplus.  Contracts  to  supply  milk  are  gen- 
erally for  the  year,  and  the  limit  in  quantity,  is 
what  can  be  produced  during  the  dry  season,  in 
order  that  all  contracts  may  be  filled  from  Jersey 
Farm  milk  alone,  as  the  proprietor  will  not  be  re- 
sponsible for  any  other  person's  milk,  or  use  it 
whatever  in  supplying  customers. 

The  proprietor  lives  on  the  farm  and  gives  it  his 
personal  attention  every  morning  and  evening. 
He  supervises  generally  all  of  the  work,  and  in- 
spects the  food,  cows  and  the  milk,  and  looks 
closely  into  the  details  of  the  business,  both  in  the 
city  and  country.  His  son,  George  R.  Sneath, 
superintends  farm  No.  2,  and  has  become  quite 
proficient,  and  takes  as  much  interest  in  the  place 
as  his  father  does. 


14 


Mr.  Chas.  "Whitmore  superintends  the  front 
farm,  or  No.  1,  during  the  illness  of  F.  W. 
Sneath,  the  eldest  son,  and  Mr.  G.  A.  Barnett  has 
charge  of  the  city  depot,  837  Howard  street;  and 
they,  with  their  foremen,  carry  out  all  the  plans  of 
the  proprietor. 

They  are  instructed  to  allow  all  persons  that  are 
consumers  of  milk  to  examine  thoroughly  all  of 
the  details  of  the  business,  from  the  feeding  of  the 
cows  up  to  the  time  of  the  delivery  of  the  milk  to 
consumers — as  well  as  the  cows  themselves — that 
they  may  know  that  the  milk  is  pure,  rich  and 
wholesome. 

Perhaps  two  thousand  persons  have  been  en- 
gaged about  the  business  the  past  five  years,  and 
large  numbers  discharged;  but  we  have  yet  to  hear 
of  a  single  person  that  ever  charged  that  any  of 
the  milk  had  been  adulterated  during  that  time — 
and  it  would  be  utterly  impossible  for  any  person 
to  have  adulterated  it  without  the  knowledge  of 
those  employees. 

The  trying  time  with  milkmen  is  in  the  dry  sea- 
sou  and  early  winter,  when  milk  becomes  scarce 
and  high.  When  it  is  impossible  to  buy,  and  fill 
an  increased  demand  from  regular  customers,  they 
must  then  either  lose  their  customers  or  put  in 
water.  The  water  goes  in,  of  course;  and  it  is  at 
such  times  that  Jersey  Farm  takes  in  many  cus- 
tomers. So  many  losses  have  been  made,  how- 
ever, by  watering  too  much,  that  there  is  a  whole- 
some fear  abroad  now  among  the  dealers,  and  thus 


the  proprietor  of  Jersey  Farm  may  fairly  have  the 
credit  of  causing  a  much  higher  general  standard 
of  milk. 

Many  young  men  that  desired  to  make  a  living 
out  of  the  milk  business  have  been  furnished  with 
milk  from  Jersey  Fai*m  at  wholesale  rates;  and 
they  had  a  fair  margin,  and  could  have  done  well, 
but  the  temptation  to  substitute  cheaper  milk  and 
the  use  of  water  was  too  much  for  them,  and  they 
lost  their  business  gradually,  until  failure  was  the 
result. 

There  is  no  calling  that  requires  more  stamina 
or  integrity  of  purpose  in  escaping  from  the 
temptations  that  hourly  beset  the  milkman.  He 
is  called  to  supply  cream,  perhaps,  which  he  can 
only  take  from  his  customers'  milk;  or  supply 
milk  at  a  round  price,  when  he  can  only  do  it  by 
watering,  mixing  skimmed  with  unskimmed,  old 
with  new,  or  many  other  devious  ways  that  a  con- 
sumer may  not  find  out.  They  are  thus  led  into 
fraud  easily,  and  cannot  halt.  Families  and  large 
censumers  of  cream  should  always  set  their  own 
cream.  It  is  more  economical,  and  it  furnishes 
the  best  method  of  testing  the  richness  of  the  milk 
daily.  They  would  then  know  that  their  cream 
was  pure.  Cream  is  easily  imitated,  by  the  use  of 
white  glue,  arrowroot,  and  man}r  other  substances, 
so  well  that  it  cannot  easily  be  detected;  and  fixed 
up  milk  will  not  raise  much  cream,  although  it 
may  look  and  taste  as  well  as  good  milk. 

Swill  milk  and   that  made  from  alfalfa  hay  be- 


16 


comes  obnoxious  to  the  smell  when  sour;  and  by 
the  microscope,  is  the  only  reliable  method  of  de- 
tecting diseased  milk. 

Servants,  butlers  and  purveyors,  find  in  milk  a 
great  source  of  profit,  as  milkmen  must  have  their 
friendship  in  order  to  avoid  too  much  scrutiny; 
and  here  is  where  the  proprietor  has  found  his 
greatest  trouble.  He  does  not  allow  any  fees  to 
be  given  to  any  person,  under  any  circumstances, 
in  order  to  sell  his  milk,  and  he  has  thus  failed  in 
many  cases  to  get  business,  or  prevent  his  milk 
from  being  tampered  with  after  its  delivery,  as  the 
above  important  personages  will  not  forego  the 
usual  tribute  to  them.  And  many  servant  girls 
who  look  to  the  daily  visit  of  their  good-looking 
young  milkman  as  the  event  of  the  day,  cannot 
with  composure  allow  his  displacement,  and  they 
know  too  well  how  to  effect  his  return,  by  skim- 
ming, souring,  or  fixing  the  new  milkman's  milk. 
The  drivers  of  the  Jersey  Farm  wagons  are  posted, 
however,  and  if  the  mistress  will  consent  to  lock 
their  milk  up  for  a  short  time,  and  look  to  it  hej- 
self,  she  will  then  know  what  to  expect  of  the  milk, 
and  can  detect  thereafter  any  deviation  from  the 
standard. 

The  one  cow's  milk,  which  many  consumers  call 
for,  is  looked  upon  as  a  farce  by  most  milkmen. 
It  is  made  by  making  one  or  more  cans  a  little 
richer  than  others,  and  selling  it  at  a  higher  rate. 

The  sharpest  practice,  however,  is  in  men,  and 
frequently  women,  keeping  one. or  more  cows  in  a 


17 


respectable  neighborhood,  where  they  can  be  seen 
by  the  consumer,  who  believes  that  he  is  especially 
favored  in  getting  his  milk  from  a  neighbor's  cow; 
but  if  he  will  look  into  the  matter  he  will  find  that 
the  cow  is,  perhaps,  a  blind,  and  that  the  milk  of 
twenty  swill-fed  cows  is  being  served  to  a  delighted 
neighborhood  under  cover  of  a  few  dry  cows,  or 
that  the  owner  is  a  scavenger,  and  feeds  his  cows 
upon  decayed  vegetables  or  swills  of  the  neigh- 
borhood, in  a  state  of  decomposition;  and  in  either 
case  there  is  a  large  profit  to  the  milkman. 

These  practices  are  well  known  to  the  trade,  and 
the  proprietor  of  Jersey  Farm  hopes  that  the 
attention  of  citizens  will  be  called  to  the  fact  that 
their  patronage  to  these  and  many  other  frauds  is 
the  cause  of  their  continuance;  and  if  a  proper 
degree  of  inquiry  and  investigation  was  made  by 
consumers  the  great  evil  of  adulterated  and  poi- 
sonous milk  would  soon  disappear. 

CHEAP    MILK. 

Many  hotels,  restaurants,  boarding-houses  and 
families,  in  their  desire  to  economize,  buy  the 
lower  grades  of  milk  in  market  at  from  ten  to  fif- 
teen per  cent  lower  than  Jersey  Farm  prices. 
They  get  milk,  however,  that  will  only  raise  from 
G  to  8  per  cent,  of  cream,  and  that  contains  from 
30  to  50  per  cent,  of  added  water,  which,  if  they 
would  put  in  themselves  into  pure,  rich  milk,  they 
would  save  from  15  to  30  per  cent,  more  money 


18 


than  they  now  do  in  buying  poor  milk.  City  slop 
milk  can  be  made  and  sold  at  much  less  rates  than 
at  present,  and  consumers  ought  to  know  when 
purchasing  whether  it  is  city  or  country  milk. 

The  secret  of  watering  milk  heavily  so  as  not  to 
be  detected  easily  is  to  add  salt,  which  coagulates 
it  and  gives  it  body,  apparently,  while  a  little  burnt 
molasses  or  sugar  will  give  it  the  natural  appear- 
ance of  country  milk  and  disguise  the  watery  ap- 
pearance. This  can  be  done  as  well  by  second- 
class  houses  as  by  the  milkmen,  and  by  which  a 
great  saving  can  be  effected  without  dealing  in 
slop  or  unwholesome  milk;  or  the  skimmed  milk 
of  this  dairy,  that  not  over  one-half  of  the  cream 
has  been  taken  off  and  perfectly  sweet  and  still 
richer  than  most  of  the  milk  sold,  can  be  had  at 
one-half  the  regular  price  of  whole  milk,  and  which 
requires  no  fixing  whatever.  This  milk  is  now 
used  largely  by  many  persons,  and  they  affirm 
what  is  said  as  to  its  comparative  quality. 

The  principal  reason  why  milk  does  not  agree 
with  many  people  is  because  it  comes  from  bad 
material  and  is  unwholesome,  but  those  same  per- 
sons will  give  the  milk  their  stomachs  refuse  to 
their  children  and  expect  them  to  thrive  on  it. 

SOUR    AND    TAINTED    MILK. 

Many  persons  are  not  aware  of  the  extreme  del- 
icacy of  milk  or  the  importance  of  giving  it  partic- 
ular attention.  Milk  vessels  should  never  be  used 


19 


more  than  once  without  first  washing  them  thor- 
oughly with  strong,  clean  soap  suds  and  a  brush, 
and  then  well  rinsed  and  scalded  in  boiling  water 
and  dried  in  the  sun.  The  least  particle  of  old, 
sour  or  stale  milk  left  in  the  can  will  sour  new 
milk  immediately.  Milk  should  be  kept  at  from 
60  to  70  degrees  of  heat,  and  away  from  all  matter 
that  gives  forth  any  odor,  especially  from  any  ma- 
larious matter,  as  no  better  agents  exist  to  carry 
poison  to  the  blood  than  milk  and  cream.  Cream 
will  not  rise  readily  in  either  hot  or  cold  weather; 
the  temperature  must  be  equable;  and  many  house- 
wives and  servants  declare  milk  to  be  poor  because 
they  do  not  always  get  the  same  quantity  of  cream 
for  the  same  time  of  setting.  In  cold  weather  it 
may  take  forty-eight  hours  for  all  the  cream  to 
rise  that  may  be  had  in  twelve  hours  in  a  proper 
temperature,  and  in  hot  weather  milk  will  sour 
before  much  of  the  cream  will  rise. 

There  is  no  product  in  use  by  the  human  family 
whose  purity  is  more  essential  and  yet  so  difficult 
to  obtain  as  pure  wholesome  milk. 

DISEASED    MILK. 

Few  people  are  aware  of  the  danger  of  contract- 
ing diseases  from  the  milk  of  cows  that  are  dis- 
eased. Cows  have  consumption,  pneumonia,  con- 
gestion of  the  lungs,  and  most  all  of  the  complaints 
that  the  human  family  are  subject  to,  and  the  mu- 
nicipal authorities  ought  to  require  a  rigid  inspec- 
tion monthly  of  all  the  cows  and  the  feed  and  wa- 


•20 


ter  they  consume,  and  from  which  milk  is  furnish- 
ed for  the  city.  The  consumptive  cow's  cough  is 
almost  human,  and  any  person  may  detect  it  by 
remaining  in  the  yard  with  them  a  few  moments. 
Is  it  possible  that  a  healthy  child  can  be  raised  on 
a  consumptive's  milk  ? 

[Under  the  Microscope.] 


FIG.  i. 

Sample  of  one  cow's  milk,  furnished  a  sick  child  in  Chicago  as  pure. 

Cows  are  much  more  likely  to  become  diseased 
in  the  city  yards,  on  such  defective  food  as  is  gen- 
erally given  them,  than  in  the  country;  besides, 
the  lack  of  good  air,  water  and  exercise,  soon 
leaves  them  effeminate,  and  an  easy  prey  to  the 


many  disorders  they  are  liable  to.    Cows  are  known 
to  have  lost  the  use  of  their  teeth  by  the  use  of 


[Under  the  Microscope.] 


distillery  slops  within  two  years;  after  which  such 
animals  would  starve  in  the  country  on  natural 
food.  Most  milkmen  are  too  poor  to  promptly 
discard  a  sickly  cow,  as  their  own  living  may  de- 
fend on  the  sale  of  her  milk. 


•22 


[Under  the  Microscope.] 


o  o 


FIG.  4. 

Distillery  Swill  Milk  two  hours  after  milking. 


[Under  the  Microscope.] 


FIG.  5. 

From  Brewery  Slops. 

Prof.  R.  U.  Piper  says:  "it  is  impossible  to  discover  any  difference  in 
the  appearance  of  the  two  kinds  of  milk,  from  the  Brewers'  leavings,  or 
the  Distilleries. 


,'5*70720 


24 
Delivery  Price  List. 

To  regular  customers  for  the  year  1880-81,  com- 
mencing July  1,  1880.  No  pint  deliveries. 

1  quart  daily,  per  month,  $3  00     6  quarts,  $12  60 
3  pints      "  "  4  00     7       "         14  30 

2  quarts    "  5  00     8       "         16  00 

3  quarts    "  "  7  00     9       "         17  80 

4  quarts    "  9  00  10       "         19  60 

5  quarts    "  10  80  11       "         21  40 

One  can  daily  of  3  gallons,  75  cents  each,  $22  50 
Two  deliveries  daily  will  be  $1  per  month  extra. 
Ten  cans  daily,  or  more,  65  cents  each. 
1  quart  pastry  cream,   50  cents;   1  quart  table 

cream,  40  cents. 

PRICES  AT  CITY  DEPOT,  837  HOWARD  STREET. 

10  cans  or  more,  daily,  60  cents  each. 

Buttermilk,  5  cents  per  quart,  or  35  cents  for 
three-gallon  can. 

Sweet  skimmed  milk,  5  cents  per  quart;  half  of 
the  cream  off,  35  cents  per  can. 

Sour  skimmed  milk,  per  can,  20  cents. 

Any  dissatisfaction  should  be  reported  immedi- 
ately to  Superintendent  G-.  A.  Barnett,  837  How- 
ard street,  San  Francisco. 


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